Match Report: NYM vs Connecticut Yankees, March 11th 2006.
Place: Cedar Mill School, Norwalk, CT. Weather: Sunny. Ground: Artificial Turf (with slightly confusing lines).

A-side L 0-3.

The day started out with the usual travel “arrangements”, some members arriving early to witness some high school rugby, many arriving in the van a little bit later, and the Captain arriving late because he took “Metro East” instead of North! Birdie took the warm up in his new capacity of coach. The warm up, as so often told much, and yet little of what was to come. The battle cry had gone up earlier in the week from Toth “Let’s show these Yankees where the real Yankees come from!”, and something un-printable about ski-bunnies from Fritschie. NYM started out playing into the sun, Capo Fitzy reasoning that it would come down later in the day to blind the Yankees when we turned around. NYM started fairly brightly but couldn’t really get through the phases. The whole match was really a tale of fragmented offenses that presented just a few opportunities to either team. These weren’t finished off due to errors in the last pass or good covering defense. In fact, the defenses pretty much cancelled each other out. Chris Agnew led the line up vocally in defense and the scrum noticeably stabilized somewhat when he moved to loosehead, with Ben Whitney switching back to lock. The back-row competed well for the ball and in the contact area with newbie Todd Peate having a great debut, ably supported by Mike Toth and Brian Piantedosi with typically industrious showings. However, the backs liked a bit of bite and this wasn’t helped by slow ball or poor presentation from the rucks. They excelled in defense though, snuffing out several Yankee attacks, with Keelan Walker standing up and putting in a textbook tackle on their center to disrupt the final pass to the wing, who could well have been in. Ultimately it was the Yankees who took the spoils by taking their one opportunity in front of the posts, Matt Smith spurned NYMs lone kick by shanking it with his peg leg. Team: 1. Ben Whitney, 2. Shane O’Driscoll, 3. Ryan McElduff, 4. Scott Crafton, 5. Chris Agnew, 6. Brian Piantedosi (Angus Birchall), 7. Mike Toth (Jeff), 8. Todd Peate, 9. Ed Brydon, 10. Matt Smith, 11. Chris Finley (Olivier Loudig), 12. Pete Smith, 13. Keelan Walker, 14. Brian Eastman, 15. Brian Fitzpatrick (Capt). Man of the Match: Chris Agnew.

B-side L 10-19

The second game was a bit more of an open affair. We brought down plenty of players who all got a game. Luca made up for some fumbles by sticking a man who was clean through to prevent a score. Newbie Duncan Heilbronn relished the defensive work in the centers and capped his debut by scoring NYMs two tries the second by scooting into the corner following some neat hands along the backs. Drew Fautley came on late in the came to much abuse and put in some trademarks hits. However, despite some late NYM pressure the Yankees did enough to take this game too. Apologies, I can’t remember everyone who played and where but thanks to all who came down and took part, it was very encouraging to see you all there. Man of the Match: Luca “Barry Bonds” Loguercio.

Thanks go to the CT Yankees for putting on a great drink up to soothe the losses.